Class Puts Forensics Skills To Test

High School Students Have Been Learning About Evidence And Law, And Now They Are Seeing How Well They've Learned.

April 18, 2003|By ROSELYN TANTRAPHOL; Courant Staff Writer

ENFIELD — They were high school students, dressed in khaki cargo pants and hooded sweat shirts. But the group digging through the charred interior of the old pool house at Green Manor Park Thursday morning didn't sound much like teenagers.

``We need a warrant before we start doing anything else,'' junior Dave Picard said as two of his classmates stood inside, surveying the room still containing the oppressive smell of burnt plastic.

Picard, standing in the doorway, couldn't help but comment again on the line running through the plastic floor mat. ``See the burn pattern?'' he said. ``That's not normal.''

Starting at 10 a.m. in the morning chill, seven Somers High School forensics students were working hard to collect key evidence in this arson scene. Working equally hard were local and state fire officials on the scene to answer questions about the case, and the ones who had set the building ablaze a day earlier.

While the juniors and seniors were searching for evidence pointing to an arsonist, the true mastermind of the exercise itself was Mary Anne Butler, who teaches forensics at the high school. The semester course covers fingerprinting, criminal profiling, blood splatter interpretation, footprints, toxicology, law and a host of other topics.

The idea is to use forensics to pull together subjects in a way not typically done in school. ``Everything is segregated,'' Butler said. ``In this class, they can use world language, they can use math.''

The popularity of television shows like ``CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' has focused attention on schools bringing mock investigations to the classroom. Butler's class drew national media attention last spring when a CBS News film crew covered a dig of a crime scene.

In the name of science education, Butler has electrocuted the Marshmallow Man of ``Ghostbusters'' fame and coordinated a break into a supply closet. But getting permission -- and help -- to do a live burn on an old town building is new territory for the former family law attorney.

Butler started asking about creating an arson scene, and after months of work, Somers and Hazardville fire officials settled on the location at Green Manor Park on Taylor Road. The town of Enfield had already tagged the pool house to be demolished at some point, and officials felt the location was safe enough for the burn.

On Tuesday, a crew descended on the building to scope out the 14-foot-by-19-foot room and plant evidence.

On Wednesday, firefighters from the Hazardville Fire Department, assisted by fire officials from Somers, set the building on fire.

On Thursday, the students got to work.

After filling out a search warrant -- and getting a crash course about the process from three state troopers -- the students fanned out, rulers and evidence bags in hand. They studied burn patterns on the walls, noted where aluminum casing had burned off wires and eyed a man lurking suspiciously on the parking lot.

State police Det. Christopher Guari brought out his dog, Panache, to sniff out accelerants in the room. Students marked the spots Panache identified, scooping up ashes and cutting out a piece of flooring to send to a University of Connecticut lab.

Somers Deputy Fire Marshal Glen Reynolds said the amateur investigators were very methodical. ``The major points we wanted them to pick up on, they picked up on,'' he said.

After nearly four hours, the students called it a day. Their work continues next week, when they learn of the lab results and receive dossiers of some youths arrested in the past for defacing the property.

The investigators will also have additional interviews -- some perhaps more challenging than others. When senior Dan Campagna had asked if he could speak with the woman who had called in the fire, he was informed that the class would hear testimony from Teresa McCarthy, a Spanish teacher at his school.

``She'll be available for questioning all week -- but in espanol solamente'' -- in Spanish only, Butler said.

Later, going over notes on his clipboard, Campagna glanced at Picard. ``Dave, I hope you're good in Spanish.''